Avian flu update

No good news here:

1. Human cases appear to be developing in Kazhakstan.

2. There is probably (weak) human-to-human transmission in Indonesia.

3. Birds are spreading the flu to other birds in Europe, and probably later to Australia and North America as well.

4. Casualties continue in Vietnam.

5. The Chinese government is not being forthright about the possibility — admittedly speculative — of rampant bird flu (for birds and humans) on its territory.

6. Bird flu is now entrenched in bird populations throughout Southeast Asia for at least the next six to eight years, giving the virus more time to mutate and possibly become a pandemic.

Your chance of dying from avian flu is much greater than your chance of dying from terrorism.  Yet the Bush Administration is still doing virtually nothing.

For documentation, and further updates, check in regularly on avianflu.typepad.com, the avian flu blog which I run with Silviu Dochia.

Addendum: Do not get too hopeful about recent vaccine reports.